Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Note 10 – Income Taxes

The Company elected to be treated as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code starting with its taxable year ended December 31, 2016. The Company currently qualifies and intends to qualify annually for the tax treatment applicable to RICs. A RIC generally is not subject to U.S. federal income taxes on distributed income and gains so long as it meets certain source-of-income and asset diversification requirements and it distributes at least 90% of its net ordinary income and net short-term capital gains in excess of its net long-term capital losses, if any, to its stockholders. So long as the Company maintains its status as a RIC, it generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on any ordinary income or capital gains that it distributes at least annually to its stockholders as dividends. Rather, any tax liability related to income earned by the Company represents obligations of the Company’s investors and will not be reflected in the consolidated financial statements of the Company. The Company intends to make sufficient distributions to maintain its RIC status each year and it does not anticipate paying any material United States federal income taxes in the future.

Federal income tax regulations differ from U.S. GAAP, therefore distributions in accordance with tax regulations may differ from net investment income and realized gains recognized for financial reporting purposes. Differences may be permanent or temporary in nature. Permanent differences are reclassified among capital accounts in the consolidated financial statements to reflect their appropriate tax character. Temporary differences arise when certain items of income, expense, gain or loss are recognized at some time in the future.

The following table sets forth the tax cost basis and the estimated aggregate gross unrealized gain (loss) on investments for federal income tax purposes as of and for the period ended March 31, 2024 and the year ended December 31, 2023 (in thousands):

	March 31, 2024			December 31, 2023
Tax cost on investments	$	1,062,910		$	1,105,481
Change in unrealized gain on a tax basis	$	10,414		$	11,239
Change in unrealized loss on a tax basis		(56,992	)		(49,711	)
Net unrealized gain (loss) on a tax basis	$	(46,578	)	$	(38,472	)

The Company accounts for income taxes in conformity with ASC Topic 740 — Income Taxes ("ASC 740"). ASC 740 provides guidelines for how uncertain tax positions should be recognized, measured, presented and disclosed in consolidated financial statements. ASC 740 requires the evaluation of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing the Company's tax returns to determine whether the tax positions are "more-likely-than-not" of being sustained by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions deemed to meet a "more-likely-than-not" threshold would be recorded as a tax benefit or expense in the current period. The Company recognizes interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense on the Consolidated Statements of Operations. There were no material uncertain income tax positions at March 31, 2024 or December 31, 2023. Although the Company files federal and state tax returns, the Company's major tax jurisdiction is federal. The previous three tax year-ends and the interim tax period since then remain subject to examination by the Internal Revenue Service.

If the Company does not distribute (or is not deemed to have distributed) each calendar year the sum of (1) 98% of its net ordinary income for each calendar year, (2) 98.2% of its capital gain net income for the one-year period ending October 31 in that calendar year and (3) any income recognized, but not distributed, in preceding years (the “Minimum Distribution Amount”), the Company will generally be required to pay a U.S. federal excise tax equal to 4% of the amount by which the Minimum Distribution Amount exceeds the distributions for the year. To the extent that the Company determines that its estimated current year annual taxable income will be in excess of estimated current year dividend distributions from such taxable income, the Company accrues excise taxes, if any, on estimated excess taxable income as taxable income is earned using an annual effective excise tax rate. The annual effective U.S. federal excise tax rate is determined by dividing the estimated annual excise tax by the estimated annual taxable income.

If the Company does not qualify to be treated as a RIC for any taxable year, the Company will be taxed as a regular corporation (a “C corporation”) under subchapter C of the Code for such taxable year. If the Company has previously qualified as a RIC but is subsequently unable to qualify, and certain amelioration provisions are not applicable, the Company would be subject to U.S. federal income tax on all of its taxable income (including its net capital gains) at regular corporate rates. The Company would not be able to deduct distributions to stockholders, nor would it be required to make distributions. In order to requalify as a RIC, in addition to the other requirements discussed above, the Company would be required to distribute all of its previously undistributed earnings attributable to the period it failed to qualify by the end of the first year that it intends to requalify. If the Company fails to requalify for a period greater than two taxable years, it may be subject to U.S. federal income tax at corporate tax rates on any net built-in gains with respect to certain of its assets (i.e., the excess of the aggregate gains, including items of income, over aggregate losses that would have been realized with respect to such assets if the Company had been liquidated) that it elects to recognize on requalification or when recognized over the next five years.